In an interview that went live on New York Magazine’s Vulture blog late yesterday, film director (and Tripwire fave) David Lynch revealed that his next project will be a documentary-style look at famed guru Maharishi Mahesh. If for whatever reason you describe yourself as Beatles-obsessed, that name may already ring many bells: the now deceased Mahesh gained renown in the 60s as many Western musicians, namely the Fab Four, attended his meditation courses in Rishikesh, holy city to the Hindus and Indian gateway to the Himalayas. Lynch says he’s planning on beginning production next month, though according to NME, has not confirmed the inclusion of any of the surviving Beatles. The filmmaker, who has recently been campaigning for the introduction of meditation in schools “worldwide,” did however promise the project will “hold a lot of abstractions.”

Paste reminded us that the Fourth Annual David Lynch Weekend for World Peace and Meditation is once again nearly upon us (November 13-15 in Fairfield, Iowa). Tickets are still available. The main speaker will be, yes, David Lynch. But ’60s pop star Donavan will also be giving a lecture. And while some Lynch enthusiasts are more than ready for a fourth venture to the Midwest, others sort of thought they would have had this whole world peace thing knocked out a few years back. Common complaints include convoluted  speech subplots, bewildering dream sequences and wondering why the hell that thing behind the auditorium trash can matters and if it’s even relevant to the rest of the keynote address. (Via: Paste)

David Lynch has been taking a break from making bizarre movies since the release of Inland Empire in 2006, but never fear! He’s making bizarre rock music instead. A project entitled Fox Bat Strategy: A Tribute to Dave Jaurequi, chockful of the creepy, dreamlike ’50s rock Lynch’s films are notorious for, is set to release on June 30. The seven song LP featuring original lyrics by Lynch was mostly recorded in 1994 with session artists from his film Fire Walk With Me and is named for the late guitarist/vocalist heard on the album, who died in 2006. Take a listen to “Shoot the Works” at EW Music—you’ll be snapping your fingers, swaying and wearing sunglasses indoors in no time. (via p4k)

The first time we were tipped off to the Danger Mouse and Mark Linkous of Sparklehorse collaboration, it came via a poster. This time it’s coming from across the pond.

As we told you, Danger Mouse and Linkous have written a 13-song album called Dark Night Of The Soul that features, among others, David Lynch, The Strokes’ Julian Casablancas, Iggy Pop, Frank Black and The Flaming Lips‘ Wayne Coyne.

Now, as revealed to NME, the album has a full track listing, release date (or approximate at least) and some special packaging.

Dark Night Of The Soul will be released sometime in June and will come packaged with a book of David Lynch photographs to accompany the music. It will retail at £38.99 (so, like twice as much in the U.S.) and be limited to 5,000 copies. And get this — there are no plans to release the album as a legal download or on any other formats. We assume that means the physical release will be on wax (or better be).

An exhibition will run in the Los Angeles Michael Kohn Gallery from May 30, showcasing the photographs alongside the music. Danger Mouse is also producing Beck’s follow-up to his 2006 album The Information.

Dark Night Of The Soul track listing
01. Revenge (featuring The Flaming Lips)
02. Just War (featuring Gruff Rhys)
03. Jaykub (featuring Jason Lytle)
04. Little Girl (featuring Julian Casablancas)
05. Angel’s Harp (featuring Frank Black)
06. Pain (featuring Iggy Pop)
07. Star Eyes (I Can’t Catch It) (featuring David Lynch)
08. Everytime I’m With You (featuring Jason Lytle)
09. Insane Lullaby (featuring James Mercer of The Shins)
10. Daddy’s Gone (featuring Nina Persson)
11. The Man Who Played God (featuring Suzanne Vega)
12. Grim Augury (featuring Vic Chestnutt)
13. Dark Night Of The Soul (featuring David Lynch)

Moby’s been feeling inspired lately, and we’re about to benefit from it — his ninth studio album, Wait For Me, hits stores June 30, and we have the video for his first single “Shot In The Back Of The Head” right here, right now.

The countdown to the release of the album will kick off tomorrow with a free download of the video. It’s a dark, pulsing and haunting few minutes, directed by David Lynch, who was actually the inspiration for the album in a round-about way.

We’ll let Moby explain, in a blog entry from his web site:
david was talking about creativity, and to paraphrase, about how creativity in and of itself, and without market pressures, is fine. it seems that too often creative output is judged by how well it accommodates the marketplace, how much market share it commands and how much money it generates.

In making this record i wanted to focus on making something that i loved, without really being concerned about how it might be received by the marketplace. as a result it’s a quieter, more melodic, more mournful and more personal record than some of the records i’ve made in the past.

Moby called in his friends to help record the album, doodled the album art with sharpie on some copy paper and did the whole thing from the comfort of his own home. The mixing — done using purely analog equipment in true stereo — was done with the help of Ken Thomas (Sigur Ros, M83).

Check out “Shot In The Back Of The Head” here, and be sure to download your free video tomorrow.

Danger Mouse and Mark Linkous of Sparklehorse announced almost three years ago that they would be working together on a new collaborative project, but as of yesterday, when a poster for the project was delivered to our offices, it looks like the duo of “Dangerhorse” are engaging a wide spectrum of talent to help out on the new record.

Dark Night of the Soul is set to come out this summer, and though no further information on the album has been offered, the list of special guests — released only via the poster — makes the new project look like it could be one of the most eclectic collaborations we’ve seen in a long while.

Featuring Black Francis, Julian Casablancas, The Flaming Lips, Iggy Pop, David Lynch, and James Mercer, among a bunch of others, Dark Night of the Soul is bound to offer us an immense amount of ear-candy come the summer. And lets face it, who needs supergroups like Chickenfoot when you’ve got the likes of Dangerhorse giving you all of this and more on one awesome album?

Full list of guests on Dark Night of the Soul
Black Francis (Frank Black)

Julian Casablancas (The Strokes)

Vic Chestnutt

The Flaming Lips

David Lynch

Jason Lytle (Grandaddy)
James Mercer (The Shins)

Nina Persson (The Cardigans/A Camp)

Iggy Pop
Gruff Rhys (Super Furry Animals/Neon Neon)
Suzanne Vega

Orenda Fink of Azure Ray and Art In Manila, and Scalpelist, aka Cedric LeMoyne, of Remy Zero might sound like an odd-couple collaboration, but the two musicians have come together to form O+S. After a long formed friendship that’s been going on for about a decade in Birmingham, AL, O+S is now signed to Saddle Creek Records, and we’ve got two new tracks from their just-released-yesterday (March 24) self-titled debut: “Permanent Scar” and “We Do What We Want To”.

The newly formed musical partners credit David Lynch soundtracks, 10cc and 4AD records as the influences behind the haunting beauty of their new tracks. “I was looking for this balance of light and dark. You don’t know why it is dark because it is  actually very light sounding. That is what I was going for,” said Fink. 

Fink’s original idea for O+S occurred after her stint with Azure Ray, when she went on a series of excursions to collect sounds ranging from Omaha to Haiti. Eventually, Fink wanted collected field recordings and wanted to transform them into loops and songs, so she invited LeMoyne along to help with the collaborative process. 

“We’d take samples of sounds of Haitian rituals, street noises or whatever, then cut them into loops. We’d arrange them into forms and write songs with them, or she might have started a song and I would take some of these sound materials and create bodies of music around it,” said LeMoyne. 

Both “Permanent Scar” and “We Do What we Want To” foreshadow a bright picture for what O+S will have to offer us on their debut. Though the collaboration started out as more of an experiment than anything, the two manage to create eloquent arrangements in which the melodies build off of– creating a sound unique of both Fink and LeMoyne’s prior projects, and we think we’ll be hearing a lot more from this duo in the future.

O+S – “Permanent Scar”

O+S – “We Do What We Want To”

Legendary independent music store Amoeba Music in San Francisco is in the midst of its third annual Amoeba Art Show and Silent Auction, and this year Devo’s Mark Mothersbaugh and director David Lynch have both donated original works to the event.

The proceeds from the show and auction, as always, will go to the charities of choice for the participating artists. In addition to Mothersbaugh and Lynch, the show also features art from more than 60 Amoeba employees from all three locations — Hollywood, San Francisco and Berkeley. Other special guest artists participating include Leslie Hall, Gary Panter, Lori Katz and Billy Sprague. The show runs through Sunday, with the silent auction accepting bids through 5 p.m. PST (8 p.m. EST) on Monday, March 23.

If you’re in the Sunshine State, you can drop by the gallery from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. between now and Sunday at 1343 Powell Street, Emeryville, Calif. You can also view art that’s up for auction online and make bids.

One million children need to learn how to meditate and half of the original Beatles are going to help them out. Yeah, that’s right, Sir Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr are scheduled the headline the David Lynch Foundation’s benefit concert, “Change Begins Within,” at Radio City Music Hall in April, which is a benefit concert  to raise funds for one-million “at-risk” children so they can learn how to meditate.

McCartney and Starr, Donovan, Sheryl Crow, Moby and a host of others will be performing on April 4 to help Lynch with his cause. David Lynch launched his foundation in 2005 in hopes of financing scholarships for students in middle and high schools that wanted to learn about Transcendental Meditation, which Lynch credits as a life-long tool that can help kids overcome stress and violence, as well as gain success later in life. We figure, if it worked for him, TM can’t be too bad.

McCartney, like Lynch, is an advocate of Transcendental Meditation as well, having studied it in India with Maharishi Mahesh Yogi in 1968. He has accredited the practice for helping him with his music and success over the past 40 years. “In moments of madness, it has helped me find moments of serenity,” said McCartney. “I would like to think that it would help provide them [children] a quiet haven in a not-so-quiet world.”